Four Things
Okay, my officemate Derrick tagged me with this one so I’ll play along.
Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Burger King (2 different ones)
2. The Limited clothing store
3. Secretary at a law firm
4. College Campus Taco Bell Rep (free food)
Four movies I’ve watched more than once: (I could name way more than 4)
1. Pride & Prejudice
2. The Cutting Edge
3. While You Were Sleeping
4. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Four places I’ve lived:
1. Phoenix, AZ
2. El Cajon, CA
3. Siloam Springs, AR
4. San Antonio, TX
Four TV shows I watch:
1. Bones
2. House
3. CSI: Miami
4. Anything on HGTV
Four places I’ve been:
1. Berlin, Germany
2. Edinburgh, Scotland
3. England
4. 49 of the 50 States (all but Alaska)
Four people who email me regularly:
1. Stacey
2. Mark
3. PVC staff
4. Kristen
Four of my favorite foods:
1. Mushrooms
2. Pasta
3. Bread
4. Chocolate
Four places I would love to visit:
1. Paris
2. ETHIOPIA!!!
3. Italy
4. Australia
Four things I’m looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Bringing home my kids
2. Growing the non-profit adoption ministry I’m starting with friends
3. Finding God’s call on our life
4. Getting a new niece or nephew on Mark’s side and hopefully one on ours when my brother and sis-n-law adopt
Four friends I’m tagging:
- Stacey
- Jen
- Kim
- Jenny
It has begun
In about 10 minutes my oldest will burst through the door (quite literally) and it will officially be summer vacation. Natty’s last day was Wednesday. I always sit here on the last week of school and wonder what on earth we will fill our summer vacation with. Then suddenly it is August and I’m saying “Wow, that actually went kind of fast.”
So what are we going to do this summer?
- Mark’s brother and his family (5 cousins) arrive late on Sunday and are here for two weeks. The kids can’t wait. Natalie is dying for Averee to see how long her hair has gotten.
- Vacation Bible School is the second week in June. This is the first year that Natalie is old enough to attend and she’s excited.
- The kids have been begging to go back to Makutu’s Island – a 20,000 sq ft indoor play area. If you live in the Phoenix area you gotta check it out.
- Finish a few projects in the backyard like painting the playhouse and getting the flower beds done.
- Repaint Noah’s room since he’s outgrown the “firefighter” decor.
- Find bunkbeds for the girls room.
- Spend lots of time on the water slide in the backyard.
- Crash our friend’s houses who have pools
- Arrange two dozen play dates with friends.
- Go to the cabin to escape the triple digit heat.
And hopefully we will be going to Ethiopia to pick up our kids!!!
More on the “girl stuff”
So my surgery went extremely well yesterday. The hardest part was being hungry in the morning (nothing after midnight Mon) which didn’t help my headache. We arrived at the outpatient surgery center around 11:30 and went through the check in process then waited just about 15 minutes before they took me back to get ready. My favorite part was the paper booties – HA!
The put an IV line in with some saline and then right before they wheeled me back they gave me something to relax me. I remember getting from the gurney/bed to the operating table, the doc putting the mask on and then the nurse, my doc and the anesthesiologist (all women) talking about who would win American Idol last night.
The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery – covered up all cozy, even with a blanket or something around my head. The recovery nurse was talking to me about something, asked if I wanted a drink (apple juice) and if I was cramping. It was not so much my stomach as the time as it was going down my legs (which I often get w/ menstrual cramps) so he gave me some LOVELY Demerol Mark came back, he went over the pre-op stuff with him then I got dressed and they wheeled me out. I kind of dozed on they way home and went to bed when we did get home – slept until about 6:15.
Stacey brought a really yummy dinner that I totally scarfed – I was sooo hungry!
I’ve only had to take ibuprofen up to this point and it has managed the cramping well. This morning I haven’t even taken anything yet so maybe I am past the worst of it.
Thanks for all your prayers!
I spoke too soon…
It officially became a migraine about 11 p.m. – just as I was trying to go to sleep. I tried ice packs, I tried sleeping sitting up – really the only time I was remotely comfortable was when I was standing up. And I just couldn’t figure out how to sleep that way. At midnight I got nauseous. At 1 a.m. I went downstairs to try and eat something. Then I felt shaky so I drank some juice. Then I hugged the porcelain tank for about 15 minutes. At that point I gave in and took 2 Tylenol. Feel asleep sometime around 2 a.m.
This morning it is better but it is still hanging out in the back of my head. I’m hoping it stays there.
No meds?
I have had a headache for about the last seven hours. The bad news is that because of my surgery on Tuesday I cannot take anything. Luckily is not a migraine because then I would have been in trouble.
The post that talks about “girl stuff”
If you’re a guy (and I’m not sure I have many guy readers) you may want to just skip this post because it talks about girl stuff. You know the kind that makes you squirm, stick your fingers in your ears and say “la, la, la I’m not listening”.
Gone? Ok, good.
This Tuesday I am going in for outpatient surgery to have an endometrial ablation. Endometrial ablation is a procedure that uses an instrument to destroy (ablate) the uterine lining, or endometrium. You can go here to read more about it.
I decided to go ahead and post about this whole adventure because when I was trying to make a decision I tried to find experiences of other women who have done it, and I didn’t have any luck. So maybe this will be helpful to others who are thinking about it.
There are several ablation methods that can be used (see the link above). Some offices will do the procedure right in the office but I am having mine done at an outpatient surgery center. It’s the way my ob/gyn prefers just in case there was some complication, then we are already someplace she can take care of it.
The reason I am having it done is that somewhere around the age of 33 my body decide to just go whacky. Instead of my somewhat already long periods lasting 5-7 days, they were last more like 12-15 days with some days of extremely heavy bleeding.
My doctor and I discussed my options which were basically 1) progesterone cream during certain parts of my cycle to help regulate 2) birth control pills 3) an eblation.
Because my cycles are extremely irregular the progesterone cream was not really a viable option. I did not want to go back on birth control pills because a) they give me migraines and b) it seemed like a waste when hubby has had a vasectomy (which we did SO I could get off the bcp).
She gave me some literature so I could look it over and in the mean time I went ahead and went back on the pill until I could decide a long term plan.
That was a year ago It took me awhile, I guess to make my decision. For obvious reasons, you can’t have more children after an ablation. Obviously we wouldn’t be having any more kids anyways unless God decided to do something miraculous, but it was just something to mull over for a bit.
Somehow, our adoption, seemed to give me the closure I needed. At this point any additional kids we have are not coming out of my uterus
So Tuesday is the big day. The procedure itself takes about 90 seconds. From going under to being ready to go home is supposedly about 90 minutes. Recovery time can be anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. I’m going to be off work for about a week (doing some work from home). The worst part is just the cramping that comes afterward. Can’t be any worse than labor can it?
Oh, wait, I had an epidural for those. Do you think they’d send me home with one?
Saying Thank You
Yesterday Mark and I arrived in Spokane, WA for our adoption training. As we were walking toward the rental car desks we came down this small ramp that I quickly realized was lined with flags and veterans. Then I looked up and saw a woman and children with a “Welcome Home Daddy” sign – then about a dozen men and women in camouflage. Obviously, a welcoming party. It’s a familiar sight these days.
Then today I saw this about The Gratitude Campaign – an easy way to say thank you to our men and women in uniform.
The Box
Daddy is finally home from Africa and boy are we glad! He’s really wiped out and went to bed at 6:30 tonight – but hey, we made it to church this morning which I wasn’t sure about.
The question of the day around our house is “When do we get the box?”
This would be the box with the ashes of our dog who died on Friday.
When I told the kids that Snickers had died, one of their first questions is what happens to her next. Noah wanted to bury her in the backyard so I had to explain that it was against the law to do that.
“So what do they do with her?” he asked.
(And yes, I know there are pet cemeteries but I’m not about to pay upwards of $500 on a burial for a dog…as much as I loved her.)
So, in my “honesty is the best policy” mode I said “They cremate her.”
“What’s that mean?”
How exactly do you explain cremation to an 8 year old and 5 year old that doesn’t make it sound horrific? Because really “They stick her in a big fire and it burns until she turns to ashes” is just awful sounding. Somehow I managed to make it sound slightly better than that but they were still horrified by the idea.
It was then that I took a deep breath, pushed aside my “financial peace angel” (you know the one that sits on my shoulder and tells me not to overnight my adoption papers), and said “We can have them put Snickers ashes in a box and then we can bury the box underneath the big tree in Pa and MeeMaw’s backyard.”
That seemed to console them somewhat.
It was an extra $130 to have the remains returned to us in a simple box, but if it gives the kids some sort of closure than I think it’s worth it. I thought we could make a little memorial stone to mark the spot where we bury the box.
So the vet’s office will call us when THE BOX is ready for pickup. Not sure when that will be.
…here’s a picture from the vault – this is about 10 years old…in her spry days.
Heartache & Blessings
It’s been quiet here. For the last 3 weeks’ I’ve been a single parent as Mark has been in Africa. So it’s been a tad busy to say the least but in all it’s gone well. He is home tomorrow and we are so glad!
But today we lost a four-legged member of our family – our dear, sweet, mischievous basset hound named Snickers. Technically it’s been awhile since she’s been mischievous as she was 13 years old. But she was always a troublemaker at heart Boy could I tell some stories, and I will another day.
When I came home from work this afternoon she was lying in the grass. I confess that lately, whenever I see her lying somewhere, I strain to make sure she’s breathing. I realized she wasn’t and when I went outside to check on her it was apparent that she had died sometime during the day – most likely while she was sleeping.
Natalie (5) was home and Noah was due to arrive in 10 minutes or so. I kind of stumbled around for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. I called my MIL who said she’d call the Humane Society. I called my vet who said we could bring her in there and talked about our “options”. The problem was getting her to the vet. Physically she’s a 60lb dog that even, on my best day, is hard for me to get into the van. Emotionally I wasn’t sure I could even manage to get her into a blanket or anything.
So I started making some calls – other staff members that lived close by. I finally got hold of Art, Stacey’s dad, who came over. While I stayed in the house he got Snickers onto a towel and then when my MIL & FIL got here, he loaded her into the back of the truck and covered her up. I cannot tell you how huge a blessing this was to not have to do this myself or just have some stranger come and do it. THANK YOU ART!
While my MIL & FIL stayed with the kids and got them dinner I went and picked up Stacey who accompanied me for morale support to the vets office. While my naturally tendency is to not “need” help in situations like this I am so glad that Stacey was there for a shoulder to cry on – and help me laugh some too. THANKS STACEY!
The kids are quite heartbroken. I’m not sure Natalie understand the finality of it because she’s said things like “if Snickers dies” or “when Snickers dies” still. Both, of course, want to know if Snickers will be in heaven so they can see her again. That one is a sticky issue (and a topic of theological debate at our house). I’ve tried to keep them focused on the happy memories we have of her and the funny stories. I told them we’d put together a scrapbook of Snickers too.
Mark happened to call me on Skype in the midst of all of this so I was able to tell him. He felt bad that I was having to deal with it on my own but we both know it was probably better. God’s timing is always best!
I am so thankful for family and friends that are there for us in times like these. What a huge blessing!
